Police: Utah man threatened family with machete, slashed tires

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A Salt Lake City man is accused of threatening his family with a machete and then using it to slash the tires of their escape vehicle.

In charges filed Tuesday, police wrote that the man was arguing with his wife Friday at their home near 2200 East and 2100 South, when he held a machete to his wife's throat and told her she "was not leaving this house."

When she asked to leave, he told her to shut up and that he was going to kill her and their three children, police wrote. An 11-year-old daughter told police she heard her mother yell, "Please help me!" and she saw her father swing the machete at her mother, slashing a couch instead.

The woman's sister arrived at the home in response to earlier calls to come pick up the kids, police wrote. She took the children and their mother out to a truck driven by her boyfriend, police wrote.

The husband followed and slashed two of the tires on the truck before the driver peeled out, police wrote.

The man, 33, was charged with first-degree felony aggravated kidnapping, third-degree felony aggravated assault, three third-degree felony counts of domestic violence in the presence of a child, and criminal mischief, a misdemeanor.

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